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POLITICO Junkies: Obamacare delay fallout

“I didn’t get a heads-up,” the founder and longtime leader of Families USA said in an interview after the administration announced it would delay the Obamacare employer coverage requirements for a year.

Even some of the business lobbyists who had urged the administration to push back its rules were unprepared for the news that appeared on a Treasury blog Tuesday evening, when much of Washington had already left town for the holiday.

“Honestly, it was a surprise that it came this quickly,” said Matt Haller, vice president of the International Franchise Association. “We certainly felt like we were making headway, but we didn’t get any hints until yesterday.”

Interviews with business associations and health care groups show an administration under huge pressure as a major deadline for President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement neared. The business lobbyists mounted a coordinated campaign to convince senior White House officials that their date for requiring coverage was simply impractical. Ultimately, the White House agreed.

Neither the White House nor Treasury disclosed the timeline of their decision to put off until 2015 the penalties on employers that don’t offer workers affordable health care. Those rules apply to businesses with more than 50 workers, the vast majority of which already provide health insurance to employees. Smaller businesses were, and remain, exempt.

Treasury itself acknowledged the rules — which were not finalized yet even though they were supposed to go into effect within months — were not simple, to say the least.

“We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively,” assistant secretary for tax policy Mark Mazur wrote in announcing the delay. “We are working hard to adapt and to be flexible about reporting requirements as we implement the law.”

For the health wonks and government economists calculating insurance takeup rates and subsidies, the delay is probably a wash. While there may be some winners and some losers, the overall number of people gaining health insurance in 2014 probably won’t change all that much.

But politically, the announcement gave Republicans a fresh reason to declare Obamacare a “train wreck” that’s nowhere near ready for prime time.

The president’s health law was basically built on a trio of “shared responsibilities” — individuals have to get insurance, employers have to provide insurance and the government helps people who can’t afford insurance.

On Tuesday, one branch got a reprieve.

For the business world, the timing may have been a surprise, but the planning had been meticulous.

The White House has held many meetings with business groups — sometimes about the health law, sometimes more general. Business lobbyists returned to the health law rules in both settings, time and again. They spent time with high-level officials, including Nancy-Ann DeParle, Gene Sperling, Alan Krueger, Melody Barnes and Valerie Jarrett, some of whom have since left the White House.

“I can’t tell you how many times we met with them,” said Neil Trautwein, vice president of the National Retail Federation, recounting his frequent conversations with White House and Treasury officials.

“I’ve got to give them credit for reaching out to us and working to understand our concerns, and I think eventually, not because of any special thing we did, they came to the view that this was not going to be ready for prime time,” Trautwein added.

Several trade groups had fly-ins so Washington officials could hear from business owners across the country. The National Restaurant Association, the National Retail Federation, the National Council of Chain Restaurants and chambers of commerce were among those that took part, said Stephen Caldeira, president of the International Franchise Association.